an artistic haven of handmade artists on etsy, one of a kind ooak home made jewelry and home decor, cards and crafts, fine art paintings, and photo decor art including sahm posts from the author, weekly artisan features and giveaways !

Friday, April 16, 2010

This is my 24th interview of the amazing not-so-well-known artists of Etsy!

Good morning all! Hope your week has been good :D I have been having a good think about the next couple of weeks and thought it'd be best to warn you in advance that there MAY be a possibility that I'll have to cut a few weeks of blog time out. It'll entirely depend on what happens when my baby is born! But me having my supermom head on, I have this fantastical idea that I'm going to be confidently juggling my usual dues on here, Etsy and my son with the addition of newborn duties! So trying to be a bit realistic now LOL! You never know, I may be ok with it all but just in case I thought I'd put it out there!So on with today's feature, I would like to bring to your attention the beautiful natural workings of Jessica of SeedsAndCharms on Etsy, whom I found recently whilst having my usual procrastinative browse... and WOW! My color magpie radar went into overdrive! There is just SO much color bursting out of the page when looking through her jewelry and charms. But besides it being beaded jewelry, she has taken the art of beading one step further by using the most unusual of seeds that make up the main fabric of each item and exaggerating their beauty and color with the use of silver against them. Absolutely stunning!So please take a few minutes to check out Jessica's interview and do check out her store! You'll more than likely find something amazing to purchase!

(Just click the images to go direct to the listings)

-- Tell me a bit about you! (Name, Age, Location, and give us a random fact whilst you're at it.) My name is Jessica, I'm 35 years old mother of 2 kids. I'm from Peru but because of my husbands job we moved to Mexico City and now to Indianapolis, we've been here the last 2 years.

-- What is your business about then? I create accessories mainly with seeds from the Peruvian Rain forest, huayruros, acai and tagua. Right now I'm doing key chains which are also purse embellishments, they have a lobster clip so you can attach it to nearly anything that has a hook. I also do wine charms, cell phone charms or zipper pulls and lately I've trying to do a little bit of jewelry too. I also use beads for some of my projects.

-- How did Etsy come into your life? The truth is that until 2 months ago I had never heard of etsy! A friend of mine send me an email inviting me to see her store on etsy, I started looking through the site and loved it. It was exactly what I was looking for, a place where I could show my work to a wider group of people.

-- Are you working a day job too? No, I have my days full between my kids, house work, my creations. Also, once we started traveling it got hard to have a regular job.

-- How long has the artist in you been 'unleashed' for? For a while now. I love to do creative things, some years ago I made toys out of wood, it was a lovely experience working with wood and paint. I also do stationary, I started 3 years ago, and I love it. For the last year I've been creating beautiful things with seeds, charms and beads.Hopefully I will open one stationary shop on etsy, but first I want to concentrate on positioning seeds and charms, my current shop.

-- What has been the inspiration behind your business? I have to credit my mom for this. Back in my country she started to work with seeds, last year I had foot surgery and she came to help me with the kids. Since I couldn't move much, and knowing that I love to do things with my hands, she brought from Peru the materials so that we could do something together. I liked it so much that decided to keep all of the materials and create my own pieces. Now what I do is pick some seeds and start playing with them to see how they look with the different charms that I have.

-- If you could describe your products in three words, what would you tell me? Natural, playful, unique

-- What would an average working day for you be like from dawn til dusk? I start at 6:30 waking up my kids, and after they go to school I go to the computer, a quick look to my emails, etsy, twitter, flickr etc. I go to the gym, I try to go 4 times a week for a couple of hours, and then use whats left of my morning to create new items and mostly to work on my store and promoting it. Afternoons are dedicated to after school activities with the kids and homework, after they go to bed I will dedicate some more time to the store, checking the forums and trying to get a treasury. I've discovered that etsy is quite addictive!, my DVR is full of shows that I don't have the time to watch anymore.!

-- What's your favorite material and techniques to work with? Although I like all the different beads you can find and all the different things you can do with them, I have to say working with seeds is what I like most. Since they're natural you won't find two seeds exactly the same, each has different lines, or marks that makes them unique.

-- What is your ideal vision for the future for you and your work? I would love for it to turn into a "real" business, not just me working at home on the time I can find through the day, but to have something big.

-- Away from work, what do you like to do for fun or to wind down? I love to exercise, go out to lunch with my friends, read and watch movies. Working on my pieces also relaxes me, I put some music and start to work with them and the time just flies by, sometimes to fast!

-- What are you likely to search for on Etsy? That is tough one, there are so many things!. Usually is not something specific, I like to go through the treasuries, there are great finds in them. I'm amazed at how creative people can be. There are many pieces that you would rarely see in a store.

-- Any last words? Thanks for the opportunity to appear in your blog! Hopefully people visiting my store will find something for them or for a loved one.